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Charly Bass-Davis moved to Wilmington, Delaware, when she was 10 years old. At the time, there were thriving businesses and a solid sense of community.
However, her neighborhood began to decline as housing prices rose, leaving many homes vacant. A former laborer and restaurateur, she decided to make a change by joining the Jumpstart Wilmington program, which trains and finances local residents to revitalize their communities.
Now, she runs her own business, Steel Development, which renovates and sells homes to lower-income buyers.
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“We have that power and that community union that it takes to uplift and revitalize an entire system,” she told 6abc Philadelphia.
Even if you don’t have Bass-Davis pitching in to revamp your city, there are other paths to affordable housing and investing in real estate.
Co-buying with family or friends
Bass-Davis’s business model banks on the community to make housing more affordable. Consider researching similar avenues that you may be able to access within your own community.
The Federal Reserve’s latest numbers show that the median sales price of a home is $410,800.
If you plan to put a 20% down payment on a home — the traditional amount — then you’d need to have more than $80,000 on hand.
A survey by JW Surety Bonds found that 13% of Americans recently purchased a home with a non-romantic partner, such as a sibling, friend, or parent, as 25% of those buyers couldn’t afford a home on their own.
Read more: Warren Buffett used 8 simple money rules to turn $9,800 into a stunning $150B — start using them today to get rich (and then stay rich)
More real estate alternatives
Crowdfunding real estate: like co-buying, but for investors
Crowdfunding and co-buying share similarities for investors, as both involve pooling resources to acquire property or assets that might be out of reach individually.
First National Realty Partners (FNRP) leverages this collaborative approach, allowing accredited investors to invest in institutional quality necessity-backed real estate. The private equity firm has partnered with some of the largest retail and grocery chains in the country, such as Walmart, Whole Foods, Kroger, and CVS.
The team offers “white glove” investing services, providing insights into the best properties both on and off-market. FNRP acts as the deal leader, providing expertise, doing the legwork and streamlining the process, while investors can passively collect distribution income.
FNRP’s secure online platform makes investing in commercial real estate convenient and simple. You can engage with experts, explore available deals and easily make an allocation, all in one personalized portal.
For accredited investors, Homeshares gives access to the $36 trillion U.S. home equity market, which has historically been the exclusive playground of institutional investors.
With a minimum investment of $25,000, investors can gain direct exposure to hundreds of owner-occupied homes in top U.S. cities through their U.S. Home Equity Fund — without the headaches of buying, owning or managing property.
With risk-adjusted target returns ranging from 14% to 17%, this approach provides an effective, hands-off way to invest in owner-occupied residential properties across regional markets.
A market alternative
If you’re wary of co-buying a home with friends or family, alternative real estate investments offer a low-cost entry into the housing market.
Real estate investment trusts (REITs) are beginner-friendly investments that generate passive income, are bought and sold just like stocks, and don’t require large amounts of money to invest. They also allow you to diversify your portfolio across property types and geographic locations.
There are loads of REITs out there across dozens of industries, which is great for your diversification, but might make it a little harder to pick names for your portfolio. Companies like Moby are built for providing that kind of guidance.
The team of former hedge fund analysts and experts at Moby spend hundreds of hours each week sifting through financial news and data to provide top-tier stock and crypto reports to keep you up-to-date on what’s moving the markets.
In four years, across almost 400 stock picks, Moby’s recommendations have beaten the S&P 500 by almost 12%, on average. With their easy-to-understand formats, you can become a wiser investor in just five minutes, backed by a 30-day money back guarantee.
After completing your research, the next crucial step is building and efficiently managing your portfolio, and that’s where Public shines.
Trading apps like Public allow everyday investors to capitalize on the stock market by investing in fractional shares for as little as $10. You can easily pack your portfolio with your favorite companies, with zero commissions.
There’s the added bonus of Public’s high-yield cash account with an industry-leading 3.8% APY and there are no fees and no minimum balance required.
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This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.